Fuel feeder



Feb. 26, 1.946. w. M. FULTON 'FUEL FEEDER original., Filed oct. 4,'1`94o NN wm,

Patented Feb. 26, 1946 FUEL FEEDER Weston M. Fulton, Knoxville, Tenn., assigner to W. J. Savage Company, Inc., Knoxville, Tenn., a corporation of Tennessee Original application October 4, 1940, Serial No. 359,794, now Patent No. 2,361,836, dated October 31, 1944. Divided and this application June 17, 1941, Serial No. 398,501

3 Claims.

This invention relates t`o an improvement in -fuel feeders of the type used in Aconnection with stokers for supplying coal or other solid fuel to the fuel beds of heaters. This application is a division of my prior application on Stokers, Ser. No. 359,794, filed October 4, 1940, now Patent No. 2,361,836, granted October 31, 1944.

Experience has demonstrated the fact that where fuel is fed directly on top of the .fuel bed in a heater, it is diii'icult to obtain a fuel bed having a fairly level top surface. For instance, some stokers cause the fuel to pile up in the center of the fuel bed, thus making the bed much thicker in its central portion than it is around the periphery thereof.

Furthermore, the largest and most immediate demand for stokers of this type, is for use in heating plants that have employed hand firing heretofore, but a Stoker to supply this demand, must be adaptable to a Wide variety of heaters. ln many heaters, the fire-bowl is located at a considerable distance back of the re door which makes it necessary to convey the fuel a substantial distance in the heater. after it has been delivered at the lire door.

Various mechanical devices have been proposed heretofore for accomplishing this purpose,

but they have possessed/objectionable characteristics. For instance, high pressure steam is used to b-low the fuel from the re door entrance into the fire box. To be fairly successful, this method would require a source of high pressureA steam, which is seldom if ever available in house heating plants, because, where steam is used as the heating medium, very low pressure of one or two pounds is used, and where hot Water or hot air is used, steam is not available at all.

In a stoker in which a rotating Wheel having radially extending blades is used to throw the fuel into the fire box, but the Wheel is of the undershot type, this requires the fuel to pass below the axis of rotation and this results in clogging the feeder due to the downward forcing of the fuel against the bottom of the feed trough thus allowing lumps to be caught betweenthe descending blades of the wheel and the feed trough. If the rotation of the wheel be reversed so as to feed the fuel in an overshot manner, then some of the fuel is Wasted, gathers in the -bottom of the fuel trough, and finally causes clogging.

The object of this invention is to improve the construction of the Stoker of the class described, in which the objections heretofore encountered in connection with ballistic fuel feeders are com- (Cl. ISS-128) pletely obviated permitting the practical utilization of this type of Stoker, and y'et in a construction which `can be manufactured economically and used practically, and in which provision is made for securing an even distribution of the fuel over the fuel bed during feeding thereof into the heater.

A further object of the invention is to improve the construction of ballistic fuel feeders to provide for practical operation thereof in connection with stoking mechanism, and to prevent the clogging of such a feeder during the feeding operation, as well as to return to the source of supply any fuel not accurately fed to the combustion chamber of -the heater.

These objects are accomplished in a practical structure asV hereinafter described, a preferred embodiment of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, which is a partial vertical sectional view thereof shown applied to a conventional form of heater with parts in elevation.

The invention is shown in connection with a heater designated generally by the numeral I, which may be of any conventional form to which it may be desired to feed fuel by a Stoker, such as 1a house heating furnace of the boiler or other type as desired. The furnace I is shown as having the usual combustion chamber 2 therein adapted to contain'a fuel bedF to which fuel maybe fed as desired through thevusual opening 3 normally controlled by a re door.

When the invention is applied to a heater of the type already in use, the usual fire door is removed from over the opening 3, and is replaced by a frame 4, which is secured to the heater by boltsV 5. An opening 'I in the frame 4 is adapted to receive the fuel feeding mechanism, as hereinafter described.

A fuel hopper Il is arranged in front of the heater I, of a size to contain a predetermined quantity of fuel to supply the heater for a substantial period of time. The hopper I I has a back wall I2 behindA which is provided an enlarged compartment I3 formed between a bottom Wall Iii and a topwall I 5. A tubular extension I6 projects from the compartment I3 through the opening 'I substantially to the combustion charnber 2 of the heater. The tubular extension I6 is secured to the heater by means of the bolts 5.

This tubular extension I6 has partitions I'I and I8 dividing Vthe same into three superposed passageways I9, 20 and 2|, respectively, the purpose of which will be hereinafter described.

The hopper Il has an upward extension 22 adjacent the back thereof Within which are I claim:

1. In a fuel feeder, the combination of a conduit, a rotary injector member having radially arranged projecting means on the periphery thereof, means mounting said member for turning movement with the periphery thereof spaced from the adjacent end of the conduit for injecting solid fuel into the conduit while allowing some material to fall through the space between the injector member and the conduit, said conduit having the lower edge thereof below the top of the injector member and above the center of said injector member, a fuel receptacle having fuel feeding means arranged for feeding fuel therefrom to the injector member, said receptacle h'aving an opening in a side thereof, and an inclined wall extending downwardly from the conduit beneath the space between the injector member and the end of the conduit to the opening for directing into said opening fuel falling through said space, said injector member being unenclosed on the side thereof toward the adjacent end of the conduit throughout at least half of the cincumference thereof whereby the fuel not injected into the conduit will fall onto the inclined wall and be directed th'ereby into the receptacle.

2'. In a fuel feeder, the combination of a conduit, a rotary injector member, means mounting said member for turning movement with the periphery thereof spaced from the adjacent end of erating said injector at high speed in an overthe conduit for injecting solid fuel into the conduit While allowing some material to fall through the space between the injector member and the conduit, a fuel receptacle having fuel feeding means arranged for feeding fuel therefrom to the injector member, said receptacle having an opening in a side thereof, an inclined wall extending downwardly from the conduit beneath the space between the injector member and the end of the conduit to the opening for directing into said opening fuel falling through said space, the fuel shot direction to inject material through' the conduit into the chamber, and means mounting said injector adjacent the outer end of the conduit and in xed relation spaced'therefrom for iiow of the material through the conduit, said conduit having the lower edge thereof below the top of the injector member and above the center of said injector member, a fuel receptacle having fuel feeding means arranged for feeding fuel therefrom to the rotary injector, said receptacle having an opening in a side thereof, and an inclined wall extending downwardly from the conduit beneath the space between the injector and th'e end of the conduit to the opening for directing into said opening fuel falling through the space, said injector member being unenclosed and exposed at its periphery throughout at least half of thecircumference thereof toward the adjacent end of the conduit and open to the space between said member and conduit, said space being unobstructed throughout the lower circumference of the injector member between a vertical plane through the axis of said member and the end of the conduit down to the inclined wall, whereby the fuel not injected into the conduit will fall onto the inclined Wall and be directed into the receptacle.

WESTON M. FULTON. 

